Morgan women take lesson from Coppin

Harry's 15 points lead Eagles to 77-45 triumph

With a sub.-500 record in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference this season, Coppin State's women's basketball team isn't going to be confused for one with an embarrassment of riches.

But Morgan State, a young team looking for its second win of the season, still found a level to aspire to in a 77-45 loss to the Eagles as it looks beyond the first season of its new coach, Angelyne Brown.

While rolling up a 43-16 halftime lead, host Coppin (10-17, 7-11 MEAC) established the roles that would hold throughout the game. The Eagles - led by junior center Leisel Harry's 15 points and 11 rebounds - would be the brawny and confident squad, as contrasted by a Bears group (1-26, 0-18) of scrawny and scared sophomores and freshmen.

As she watched her team lose its 17th straight game and allow Coppin to shoot 58 percent from the field, perhaps Brown can look forward to the days when Morgan won't be so helpless inside against players like the Eagles trio of Harry, LaKesha Wills and Donna Williams, who combined to score 39 points.

"There's nothing to say," said Brown, who coached at Division II Clark Atlanta last year. "There's nothing new - the same thing after 27 games. We're young. That's it."

Another coach named Brown, Coppin's Derek, has sunnier prospects for next week's MEAC tournament in Richmond, with his team's second straight win reversing the three-game losing streak that preceded this week.

With the win, the Eagles probably earned the No. 8 seed in the tournament, and confirmed what they must do - get the ball to Harry and Wills, who finished with 10 points - if they intend to play past the quarterfinals.

"The key is Leisel Harry, and I've put that on her every day," Derek Brown said. "The way she plays is the way we play."

Coppin used the early minutes to establish the inside game, getting the ball into Harry, who scored nine points over the first nine minutes, including a basket at the 11:09 mark that gave the Eagles a 19-6 lead.

Williams finished with 14 points and 12 rebounds, Sherrie Tucker had 10, and Shamara Singleterry had 15 points in her final game at the Coppin Center.

"They started to come back last time, and that wasn't going to happen tonight," Singleterry said.